


not a stranger i know well

by kerry_shawcross



Series: tell me something true [2]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Avengers AU, CA:TWS AU, Gen, also it's like 2:20 in the morning why do i do this to myself, and even lawrence/adam, the slightest bit of james/elyse/adam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-18 20:33:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8175082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kerry_shawcross/pseuds/kerry_shawcross
Summary: “Last one, Kovic,” Burns' voice comes humming into the earpiece. Adam walks into the room with the third microchip in hand. “Make it quick.”Adam would. If it wasn’t Sonntag standing on the bridge.





	

The ambush leaves nothing but a hole in the ground and a destroyed car. A man in a mask with a metal arm.

Hullum shows up at Adam’s apartment later that evening. Says something about his wife to Adam but tells the truth about BYTE to Captain America.

Adam waits for the silence to engulf them when the music stops playing from his record. Turns out he doesn’t have to wait very long, since gunfire starts to riddle the air and Hullum hands him a flash drive and the words _trust no one._

He can’t move until the blonde from down the hall -- Elyse, she says -- breaks down the door and tells him she’s from BYTE. He gets up. Starts to run.

Adam keeps pace with the man in the metal arm. He throws the shield at him with all the strength he’s got in the world.

The metal arm swings up, stops the shield from hitting him.

Adam gets another glimpse of his eyes, but the rest of his face is covered by the mask. The man tosses the shield back towards Adam--

\--and then he’s gone.

\--

“Most of the intelligence community doesn’t believe he exists,” James supplies, “the ones that do call him the Winter Soldier.”

Adam watches James’ eyes when he says this; they don’t give away any sign of emotion. He’s not sure if James has perfected lying or if he just doesn’t know the difference anymore. “So he’s a ghost story.”

James jaw sets. “Going after him is a dead end. I know. I’ve tried. Like you said, ghost story.”

A white hot fire burns in Adam’s stomach. “Well,” he starts, “let’s find out what this ghost wants.”

\--

He thinks James might be dead for a minute,thinks _he_ might have killed James, thinks about everything; the heat and brightness of the explosion, the screens that he punched one by one all gone, _destroyed,_ and doesn’t think at all.

Adam knocks the debris off them in one movement. The rubble shifts underneath them. Adam holds his breath, scared that any movement could crush James, but he moves under Adam, presses his hand to his chest.

“I hate New Jersey,” he mumbles into warm skin, and Adam finds his breath; _breathes._

\--

Somehow, they manage to catch up with Elyse when she’s not at BYTE. Somehow, Elyse agrees to work with them. Somehow, she gets along with them.

And somehow, they find _him._

\--

They all get a few good punches in before Adam goes head-to-head with him, a shield against a bionic arm.

Adam sidesteps his blade and hits him hard with a mean uppercut that has _Brooklyn Alley Fight_ written all over it. His mask goes clattering off against the sidewalk.

When he turns to look at Adam, the world stops.

“Lawrence?”

 _(he can’t breathe he can’t breathe he can’t--_ )

“Who the hell is Lawrence?”

(it’s a lot harsher than he remembers it being.)

He disappears, a wanted man blending into a crowd. Adam sinks to his knees, a gun to his head.

\--

“The man on the bridge,” he relays to the men in the white flocking around him, tinkering on his arm and writing on clipboards. “I knew him.”

The men in white seem disturbed. Sonntag pauses, wonders if he overstepped a line.

But it scares him too.

The head scientist gives a flick of his wrist. “Wipe him,” he responds.

Sonntag sits back in his seat and clenches a fist with his strange, metal hand. He knows what's coming. He closes his eyes, tries to keep the memory of the man's face behind his eyelids. He looked worried. Why did he look so worried? 

The pain still comes.

The men still watch him, unblinking, emotionless.

And he still screams.

\--

Adam watched Hullum die. Adam watched Hullum _die._

“What the hell,” is the first and last thing he says. Hullum doesn’t shrug. Beside him, Burns shrugs. Adam feels sick to his stomach.

“Nothing motivates like death,” Hullum replies, and Elyse spits at his feet so Adam doesn’t have to.

\--

“ _Last one, Kovic,”_ Burns' voice comes humming into the earpiece. Adam walks into the room with the third microchip in hand. _“Make it quick_.”

Adam would. If it wasn’t Sonntag standing on the bridge.

Adam’s probably gone over the potential conversation for days. Agonizing over it whenever he had the opportunity. In almost all of them, Adam wasn’t sure he could do alone. In the few others, Adam wasn’t alone. It was just like old times.

Lawrence’s expression seems almost like a sneer. His hair is long now. He hated having long hair.

“You know me,” Adam starts, tries to continue, but Sonntag raises a metal fist, so Adam lifts his shield in response.

He doesn’t want to fight. He doesn’t want to fight. He doesn’t--

( _lawrence i’m sorry i’m sorry i couldn't save you i’m sorry i didn't come back to you i’m sorry i’m sorry i’m sorry_ )

“My name is Adam Kovic. Your name is Lawrence Michael Sonntag. You’ve known me your whole life.”

\--Sonntag breaks Adam’s nose but Adam gets the chip in anyway. Sonntag slams Adam against the glass and Adam doesn’t fight back.

Adam takes every hit Sonntag throws at him and doesn’t fight back. Adam lets Sonntag break his ribs and teeth and doesn’t fight back.

“I’m your best friend.” Adam lets his shield drop into the recesses of the murky water below and doesn’t fight back.

( _i won't fight you i won't fight you)_

Sonntag beats Adam within mere inches of death, and raises one last arm-- “You’re my _mission!_ You’re my--”

“Then finish it,” Kovic manages quietly, between blood laden coughs, between broken ribs, through shattered teeth, “cause… I’m with you.”

( _you’re my best friend i won't fight you you’re my best friend i won't fight you you’re my best friend)_

“‘Til the end of the line.”

Adam takes every hit, wonders how much more he can take, looks at Sonntag and thinks: _maybe one more._

The ground collapses beneath them.

\--

Lawrence hits the water before him.

Lawrence is also the only one of the two conscious.

He inhales as much air as he can and drags the other man _up_ , towards the light, towards the surface. He pulls him to the shore with his one good arm when there is nothing left to do, and his arm almost feels like it’s on fire. He never gets used to the nausea.

He hasn’t felt with that arm in _years._

Some part of his brain supplies the name _Adam_ , but Lawrence doesn’t know what to do with that, so he stumbles off.

But before he does that, he makes sure Adam is alive. Clears Adam’s airways. Checks his pulse.

(And when Adam wakes up, James is next to him in the hospital so he holds on tight and he _breathes._ )

\--

“You’re going after him,” James says, and it’s not so much a question as it is a statement. Adam would nod if he were in a gambling mood. James’ gentle grip on his bicep is a small reminder that he’s still alive; still here.

Adam appreciates these touches; his anchors to reality. Elyse’s hand between his shoulder blades. James’ hand on his arm. It’s the little things.

Sometimes he wonders if the reason Sonntag saved him was because some part of him _remembered_ , or if he was just--

“You don’t have to come with.” He looks at James’ big blue eyes. Looks at Elyse’s green and golden ones. Sapphires and emeralds and gold.

“Okay,” Elyse starts, dropping the flowers at Hullum’s false grave before standing again, “when do we start?”

And Adam smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> so if it isn't clear, i DID shift a bunch of stuff so it's a bit different. for example: elyse is a natasha/sharon/sam hybrid. 
> 
> i know it's widely accepted that james is cap. don't get me wrong. i love cap!james but i couldn't stop seeing him as black widow s o
> 
> thanks 4 reading! hope u enjoyed 
> 
> hmu on tumblr [@greenewillems](http://www.greenewillems.tumblr.com) if ur into that


End file.
